National News

Police and Child Protective Services take baby from parents after they seek 2nd medical opinion

(Erica Ritz) A California couple had their five-month-old baby “snatched” by police after they took the infant to get a second opinion on a medical procedure, they claim.

Anna and Alex Nikolayev are described as loving parents who took their baby, who has a heart murmur, to Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento when he started exhibiting flu-like symptoms. The family has undergone plenty of doctor visits in the last five months for the their son’s heart, and were unsettled by the treatment he was receiving.

At one point, Anna says, a nurse came in and started giving the baby, named Sammy, medicine. When she asked what it was, the nurse allegedly replied, “I don’t know.”

“I’m like, you’re working as a nurse, and you don’t even know what to give to my baby…?” Annasaid in an ABC10 Action News interview.

They later found out that medicine was antibiotics, which Anna claims the doctor told her Sammy shouldn’t have received.

After doctors started discussing heart surgery, the Nikolayevs decided they wanted a second opinion. They weren’t categorically opposed to the procedure, but they wanted a different doctor.

“If we got the one mistake after another, I don’t want to have my baby have surgery in the hospital where I don’t feel safe,” Anna explained.